Boy, 16, held in connection with WikiLeaks reprisal cyber-attacks

Dutch prosecutors said today that they have arrested a 16-year-old boy suspected of involvement in digital attacks which made it difficult to access several prominent financial payment websites earlier this week.

In a statement, the national prosecutors’ office said the teenager is believed to have participated in attacks by WikiLeaks supporters on websites “including MasterCard and PayPal, among others”.

The statement said the youth was arrested in The Hague, Netherlands. His name was not released.

It was not clear whether he was believed to have played an important role in the attacks, which flooded the websites with traffic.